Guide to Perfect 6.0 AWA GMAT Score - AWA Template for 6.0


Related AWA Resources:

• List of all AWA topics from GMAC
• Sample replies to all Essays
• Overview of GMAT Write, the official essay grading tool
• How to memorize this template using text to voice feature by plaverbach

I took the GMAT twice and scored 6.0 each time. I did put a lot of time in it the first time....too much actually. Being a non-native speaker and having not written a damn essay (of any kind) in many many years, I was very scared of the AWA. So, I went through every guide that I could find and wrote nearly 25-30 essays. Even had a friend grade them for me.....Pathetic, huh?

Anyway, for my second time, I just looked over my templates I created and wrote one of each the day before test just to refresh my memory on faster typing without making too many typos......

So, here it is....Enjoy, and please do not blame me if the 6.0 percentile goes down to 80 soon :-D

AWA GUIDE

by Chineseburned

1. General Structure

Intro - Restate argument, point out flaws or state intention to discuss them below
1st Para - First,...
2nd Para - Second/In addition,...
3rd Para - Third/Finally,...
Conclusion - The argument is flawed/weak/unconvincing because of the above -mentioned...Ultimately, the argument can be strengthened if/by...

2. Structural Word (should be all over the essays)

1. Supporting examples - for example, to illustrate, for instance, because, specifically
2. Additional support - furthermore, in addition, similarly, just as, also, as a result, moreover
3. Importance - surely, truly, undoubtedly, clearly, in fact, most importantly
4. Contrast - on the contrary, yet, despite, rather, instead, however, although, while
5. Decide against - one cannot deny that, it could be argued that, granted, admittedly
6. Ying-yang - on the one hand/on the other hand
7. Concluding - therefore, in summary, consequently, hence, in conclusion, ultimately, in closing

3. Templates

Intro:
The argument claims that ....(restate)
Stated in this way the argument:
a) manipulates facts and conveys a distorted view of the situation
b) reveals examples of leap of faith, poor reasoning and ill-defined terminology
c) fails to mention several key factors, on the basis of which it could be evaluated
The conclusion of the argument relies on assumptions for which there is no clear evidence. Hence, the argument is weak/unconvincing and has several flaws.

1st Para:
First, the argument readily assumes that......
This statement is a stretch....
For example,...
Clearly,...
The argument could have been much clearer if it explicitly stated that...

2nd Para:
Second, the argument claims that....
This is again a very weak and unsupported claim as the argument does not demonstrate any correlation between....and...
To illustrate,...
While,...
However,....indeed....
In fact, it is not at all clear...rather....
If the argument had provided evidence that.....then the argument would have been a lot more convincing.

3rd Para:
Finally,...
(pose some questions for the argument).....Without convincing answers to these questions, one is left with the impression that the claim is more of a wishful thinking rather than substantive evidence.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, the argument is flawed for the above-mentioned reasons and is therefore unconvincing. It could be considerably strengthened if the author clearly mentioned all the relevant facts....
In order to assess the merits of a certain situation/decision, it is essential to have full knowledge of all contributing factors. In this particular case....
Without this information, the argument remains unsubstantiated and open to debate.

4. Going from the templates to full-fledged essays

ESSAY QUESTION:
The following appeared in the editorial section of a national news magazine:[/b]

"The rating system for electronic games is similar to the movie rating system in that it provides consumers with a quick reference so that they can determine if the subject matter and contents are appropriate. This electronic game rating system is not working because it is self regulated and the fines for violating the rating system are nominal. As a result an independent body should oversee the game industry and companies that knowingly violate the rating system should be prohibited from releasing a game for two years."

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. Point out flaws in the argument's logic and analyze the argument's underlying assumptions. In addition, evaluate how supporting evidence is used and what evidence might counter the argument's conclusion. You may also discuss what additional evidence could be used to strengthen the argument or what changes would make the argument more logically sound.

YOUR RESPONSE:

5. Final tips

• During the tutorial type in a few sentences in the mock essay window to get used to the keyboard.
• Again during the tutorial, jot down on your notebook the basic structure of your essays or the opening sentences in case you get too nervous and forget them when the clock starts ticking.
• Write as much as you can. Try to write at least 500 words per essay.
• Always have the e-rater in mind as your potential reviewer. Remember that the human rater will make every effort to grade just like the e-rater. In that sense, keep your structure and volume in mind over actual quality/content.
• Be careful of spelling mistakes. Double check words that you normally know you misspell (e.g. exercise). Try to finish 2-3 minutes before time is up so you can slowly re-read your essay for the purposes of spell checking. Do not reorganize/delete sentences/paragraphs with less than 2 min left.
• No matter how great you thought your essays went, try to stay humble and focused - remember this was just a warm-up and the real stuff hasn't started yet!

Good luck!

This AWA template still works. I was able to score 5.5 in AWA by developing by essay based on this template. Just go through this template a week before exam and make sure u make a sincere attempt to write essays on all your mocks. That should suffice for getting 5.5 or 6 in AWA.

Thanks!

I got a 6.0 applying your template with some personal modifications. Thank you very much!

PD: It is percentile 89 now :D

I got a 4 in my AWA (740 in my GMAT) will it help if I gave it for re-checking

Hi Do you have a few more sample essays written using this style, it would help a lot

This is the bible for AWA section. I could get the perfect score in AWA with just 3-4 hours of preparation, thanks to these templates.
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The template is amazing! and it truly works, I got 6.0!

Thanks for this amazing template, Man. I went through this just 1 day before my exam and scored 6.0

Thanks for the template, I studied just 1 day and got 5 on AWA. Everybody who can't allocate much time on AWA must visit here..

Thank you very much it's works ! really works!

Exactly What I needed Thanks!!!
very appreciate your effort for this topic

Hello all...I am new to GMAT and started preparing for it. Could you please suggest if there is any word limit for the AWA in GMAT? What is the good word limit for AWA? Thanks in advance.

'Magic Hat brewery recently released the results of a survey of visitors to its tasting room last year.Magic Hat reports that the majority of visitors asked to taste its low calorie beers. To boost sales, other small brewery should brew low calorie beers as well'.

Here goes my essay:

The argument that small breweries should brew low calorie beer to boost their sale based on the survey conducted last year by Magic Hat Brewery omits some important concerns that must be addressed to substantiate the argument.The statement that follows that all small breweries will gain by brewing low calorie beer based on solely one survey does not constitute a logical argument.The author draws a weak analogy between the Magic Hat brewery and the small breweries and assumes that because their products are same they are same in all aspects.

First, the author readily assumes that small breweries have same quality of brewing machines as Magic Hat brewery. If the quality of machines are not as par with the Magic Hat Brewery, small brewery would not be able to produce good quality low calorie beer and therefore would not meet customers expectation. In addition to this, argument does not mention anything about the costs involved in installation of these brewing machines and the costs involved to source special ingredients required to produce this beer which could increase the production costs and hence the selling price. As a result it would be difficult for small brewery to sell this beer.

Second, the claim that low calorie beer will be profitable for even small breweries is weak and unsupported because of lack of evidence.The argument does not give any details about the target audience and the location of the breweries. For instance, Magic Hat is located in the downtown and caters to the elite class who prefer low calorie beer and are health conscious, while small breweries are located in suburbs and cater to middle class audience who like regular beer.

Finally, the argument fails to cite any statistical evidence of the taste preference of people surveyed :which could have changed over a period of year; gender and age group of the beer tasters; and the sample size. This sample size of the survey must be representative of the overall beer drinkers and should be relevant to make any recommendation.

In conclusion, the argument is flawed for the above mentioned reasons and is therefore unconvincing. The argument can be considerably strengthened if the author had explicitly mentioned the location, sample size, revenues and average size of the breweries mentioned in the argument.It is essential to have full knowledge of all the contributing factors before makeing any recommendation particularly in this case. Without this informationthe argument remains unsubstantiated and open to debate

Hi, as per the example by chineseburned , we don't have to use a lot of commas in our essay (to separate clauses, to indicate modifiers, etc.) so should I follow this strategy of avoiding commas in parts in which they are not absolutely necessary or should I use commas like the sentence correction questions on the GMAT at the cost of making things more complicated for me? bb GMATNinja

Thanks for sharing such an awesome template and post , I have only read two days AWA using this thread and I got 5.5 in AWA. I am quite satisfied with my score there.
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I wouldn't waste even a single minute worrying about comma use on AWA! If you're writing a sentence and you know that it would be correct to put a comma, then you'll definitely want to include a comma. If you think the comma is wrong, then don't include it. And if you're not sure, make your best guess, and don't worry about it.

I can promise that unless you're making absolutely ridiculous errors with your comma usage, it won't affect your score at all.

I hope this helps!
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Great feedback Sir. Charles

Just in case, there is also my guide as a sticky post

The GMATClub Definitive Guide to the AWA - 2019 edition

For the GRE exam, as well.

The Definitive Guide to the GRE AWA - 2019 edition


regards
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This legit works, got a 6.0 on AWA and did not study for it outside of writing a couple of practice essays using this template!!

This is my first ever attempt with AWA. Can expert please help me assess what score can I possibly expect with this attempt? chineseburned GMATNinja

The following paragraph recently appeared in an editorial printed in the opinion section of a local newspaper:

The recent surge in violence in the southern part of the city is a result of a shortage of police officers and an absence of leadership on the part of the city council. In order to rectify the burgeoning growth of crime that threatens the community, the city council must address this issue seriously. Instead of spending time on peripheral issues such as education quality, community vitality, and job opportunity, the city council must realize that the crime issue is serious and double the police force, even if this action requires budget cuts from other city programs.

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and use the evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refuse the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.

The argument states that the recent surge in violence in a part of the city was a result of shortage of police officers and absence of leadership role from city council, hence requiring a serious address by doubling the police force despite this resulting in budget cuts in other programs like education quality, community vitality, and job opportunity. This argument fails to provide any evidence on the actual number of police forces available in the city as against the required numbers and also vaguely states that the city council failed on its leadership. Further it does not show any evidence on the chances of success and also assumes that putting resources in one sector at the cost of others will not create other sorts of problems. Hence, this argument is flawed and can be strengthened.

First, the argument states that the recent growth in crimes were caused primarily because of absence of leadership role from the city council without mentioning what were the part of responsibilities and where did the city council lack thereof. Further, it also presents the shortage of police officers as the cause of the event, however, failing to show how many police officers are actually present in the part of city in question and is that number less in relation to certain parameter. Without the evidence the argument is merely a strong subjective opinion against the council and the police force.

Secondly, the argument strongly claims that doubling the police force at the cost of other programs like education quality, community vitality and job opportunity will not disrupt those aspects of the city thus requiring no policing. In many other times ignoring a sector of a community has led to chaos and creating other types of violence that also requires police force to control it. It clearly assumes that simply drawing budget off these sectors will leave these sectors without any negative consequences. This leap of faith makes the argument weaker and could have been strengthened if only the author had prescribed a length of time for budget channeling to increase police force, and mentioned the status of the health of those sectors thus pointing that they would remain unaffected despite budget cuts.

Third, the strong expectation of positive results by doubling the police force is an assumption without any evidence and hence is a stretch. The argument fails to first mention the nature of crime and show if those types of crimes actually needed police efforts. For example, domestic violence as a result of alcohol abuse could rather be effectively addressed by controlling the supply of alcohol in the city, community-based family counselling with a moderate police force. Any parallel example of other cities or places where merely increasing the number of police for that nature of crime has had a positive result in curbing the crime effectively would have made the argument effective. In the absence of this, the conclusion seems to be a strong leap.

In conclusion, the argument by failing to state the nature of crime and evidence of success potential of the efforts, and also assuming that the effort would not have any retaliation from other sectors whose budget is in question, gives an unsubstantiated conclusion based on weak evidence. The evidence mentioned above could have been used to further make the argument stronger.

This is an amazing guide, thanks so much. I'll be taking the GMAT soon and I'm very happy to have found this template.

Just one comment on the actual essay below the template, though - aren't movie ratings not self-reported? In the United States at least, they're rated by the Classification and Ratings Administration, a division of the MPAA (I'd post a source link but I'm too new, you should look it up).

This would make the reference to the movie rating system in the article a little more self-consistent: movie ratings are similar to electronic games ratings (an assumption) -> movie ratings are not self-reported -> movie ratings seem to be getting the job done (another assumption) -> electronic games should adopt a model more like that of movie ratings in order to be more effective. While the line of reasoning still relies on too many assumptions to be convincing, at least one assumption differs from an assumption highlighted in the example essay.

Would the discrepancy between reality and the essay's claims affect the essay score at all?

Managed to score a 6.0 on AWA just a few days ago using this template. I barely changed any wording from the original template. Thank you very much!

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